A Historical Perspective on Water in New York City with Focus on Jamaica Bay

E.E. Cummings once wrote, sitting near the long-since forgotten edge of Minetta Water in Greenwich Village,

…For whatever we lose (like a you or a me),
it’s always our self we find in the sea.”

In this talk, Dr. Eric W. Sanderson of the Wildlife Conservation Society will attempt to find the part of the soul of New York City in its waterways, some missing, others less so.  We will wade into the braided streams of different disciplines, geology, hydrology, cartography, literature, ecology, as the Welikia Project does, to reconstruct the historical streamscape of New York. We will also flow forward to make visions of future waters through the Visionmaker Project. Sanderson will discuss latest findings from a new book about the Prospects for Resilience for Jamaica Bay, with special relevance to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers $3.8 billion plan to stabilize the Rockaway Peninsula and reduce flooding with a system of tidal gates.

Eric Sanderson, Ph.D. is a landscape ecologist at the Wildlife Conservation Society. He is the author of Manahatta: A Natural History of NYC and Terra Nova: The New World After Oil, Cars, and Suburbs  and other books.

This event is presented in collaboration with NYC H2O.  The presentation is free and open to the public, but please RSVP through this link.

The Institute for Sustainable Cities at Hunter College is pleased to host this presentation by Eric W. Sanderson, Ph.D. on Friday, December 9, 2016 from 7:00 to 9:00 PM at Hunter College, West Building, Room W615.  Please enter Hunter College through our main entrance on 68th Street at Lexington Avenue.  Our campus is most easily accessed via the number 6 MTA subway line, 68th Street – Hunter College Station.